By Caitlin Keller
Medill Reports

Reality TV is riddled with social commentary and can serve as a microcosm for dissecting societal norms. This audio story, a conversation with cultural studies scholar Evie Psarras, examines the cultural politics of the “Real Housewives” franchise. She argues even though the “Housewives” franchise showcases women at their most outrageous and vulnerable, these women are masters in crafting a persona that uses stereotypes about women to their advantage.

 

 

Transcript:

Caitlin Keller: Look out Housewives, there’s a new franchise in town, making headlines and taking names. Beginning just two months ago, “The Real Housewives of Rhode Island” explores a true tight-knit community of women in the Ocean State. But this franchise is still standard “Housewives” fare, from the women’s carefully constructed storylines to the catfights and confessionals we’ve come to love. While some may write them off as just guilty pleasures, reality TV shows like “The Housewives” franchise are the perfect place to deconstruct norms of gender, sexuality, class, beauty and identity as these women package themselves for consumption with these norms in mind.

My guest, Evie Psarras, is a reality TV enthusiast and researcher. Her work as a cultural studies scholar explores reality TV as a way to examine ideas of class, gender and race in American society. Her dissertation focused on the performance of social class and identity throughout the “Real Housewives” franchise.

Evie, thank you for joining me!

Evie Psarras: Thank you so much for having me, Caitlin. I loved that intro, by the way.

Keller: It’s clear that you’re a “Housewives” fan. What franchise did you start out with?

Psarras: I am a day one “Real Housewives of Orange County” viewer, so that means I’ve been watching for 20 years, but like the moment that I saw Vicki Gunvalson, I was hooked, and I’ve been watching ever since.

Keller: So why did you decide to go from just an “Orange County” viewer to go all in on “Housewives” and watch more of the different locations and women there?

Psarras: It’s something about watching these women live out loud like they did in “Orange County,” like super authentically, seemingly like having no idea that cameras were following them, and I just always loved the idea of, like, strong women. All of them had like these alpha, big personalities, like sure, they were delusional and out of control, and like the trainwreck that you want to watch, but there was also something just under the surface that was so humanizing about who they were, and it was just like, OK, this is a franchise that they’re growing, and I’m going to follow it down for as long as I can.

Keller: And why do you think “The Housewives” have stayed culturally relevant over the past 20 years?

Psarras: Oh my god. OK, these women are experts at branding and experts at embedding themselves in the fabric of popular culture. OK, so like right now, where we’re at, you know, these Rhode Island housewives, they’re so good, because they have 20 years of precedent, so they sort of know how to perform on camera, and part of my dissertation research was all about how they perform on screen for us to really become the next like trending sound or, like, meme or GIF that people will use and share. If you go back and look at, like, Nene Leakes, OK, from “Real Housewives of Atlanta,” she is like the meme queen. Every reaction shot they have of her that has become a meme or a GIF, right? And people who don’t even watch “Real Housewives,” they use those memes and gifts in like everyday conversation, so the housewives, the way that they perform on camera, the way that they present themselves to the world and package themselves, they are experts at embedding themselves in our culture, so that they stick around.

Keller: So let’s talk “Real Housewives of Rhode Island.” A lot of this season’s conflict revolves around the women’s relationships to men. How do you feel about men dominating so many of the plotlines on a show that centers women?

Psarras: So, number one, I think that’s like the most powerful component of “Housewives,” is that like people want to call it trash, they want to call it all the names in the book, right, and it doesn’t always give women the best name, right? It capitalizes on stereotypes about women and whatnot, but I will say the women still are the driving force of the storyline. They’re like the reason why we’re engaged, but there is something culturally significant about maybe that part of the country where it’s like old-school Italians, those women traditionally are going to be more wrapped up in like a sort of male authoritarian culture.

Keller: Do you think the women have a role in sort of producing themselves or constructing their own storylines?

Psarras: OK, yes, 100% So these women’s storylines are planned far in advance before filming with the producers. OK, so like they map out at the beginning in pre-production, like here’s what’s going on in my life, here are the events that are happening that we could throw parties for and whatnot, and they have to plan those things in advance because they’ve got to permit all the locations that they’re going to, so like they stayed at that huge mansion, right, so like they have to permit that like months in advance, so nothing’s you know truly organic or real about the stories that we see. I think the stories are co-created between production and the women, right, and editors, and how they want to package them for the audience. A lot of them work together behind the scenes, and I’ve heard this from housewives that I’ve interviewed, former housewives, where they’re like, we will, you know, before the season starts, we will like sit down with each other and talk about, I’m willing to bring this up on camera if you bring up XYZ, but like, we won’t go here. So that’s why, like, when people talk about their children, they get really upset by that, because that’s something that they’ve probably talked about before filming, to be like, kids are off-limits, so the women do have control in that sense behind the scenes with the story that gets presented. But if production finds out like a nugget about their life, like, “Oh, so Brian might be cheating on Rulla,” you better believe they’re going to wind up making that the entire story, and then it’s out of the housewives’ hands.

Keller: A lot of critics of the “Housewives” franchises say that the show can pit women against each other. What about the show makes you read it in a feminist way?

Psarras: OK, so again, all of those stereotypes are true, and what I’ll say about these women’s identity performances, if they’re smart and they want to get all the brand deals and they want to embed themselves in the fabric of pop culture with like those meme-able moments or trending sounds that they become, they are going to play into those stereotypes. It’s kind of like Dolly Parton, and she is like the first to be in on the joke that is her image, right? Where she’s always like,” OK, yeah, I’ve got the blonde hair, but I’m not dumb.” That’s essentially the playbook that these women are taking, they’re like playing to all the stereotypes, the horrible stereotypes about women that they’re like overly emotional, obsessed with, you know, consumerism and material things, and they play into those things, right? But the best part for me is that while women are boxed into those stereotypes in media, what the housewives do so beautifully is they color outside the lines of those boxes, they sort of break through them by having all of those emotional breakdowns, by not containing their emotions the way that women have always been told they need to contain them. So as much as it’s “bad for women” — OK, like, these are bad representations of women, they’re also awesome representations of women, because they show all the multifaceted aspects of who we are, our personalities, the things that we know, the things we’re capable of.

Keller: I have to bring up the most recent episode of “RHORI.” A scene that really struck me, it’s two women yelling at each other in the restaurant, one of them is calling the other one a “slam pig.” And there’s a lot of derogatory language being used and a lot of outrageous behavior. Do you still think that’s a feminist act?

Psarras: That in itself is not a feminist act. The feminist act is finding ways within a sexist working environment that does operate on pitting women against each other. The feminist action comes from those women finding ways to put on a show for our entertainment, because they know it’s going to make them money, potentially get them out of their marriages, and lead them down a road that’s like bigger and more impressive than anything they could have imagined.

Keller: You’re listening to Medill Reports and we’re speaking with Evie Psarras, a cultural studies scholar, and we’re discussing the cultural politics of the “Real Housewives” franchise.

Going at a cultural studies lens, you feel like “Housewives” positions itself from that dominant cultural perspective?

Psarras: Like, are they embracing all the dominant codes about, like, race, class, gender?

Keller: Yeah.

Psarras: Absolutely, 1,000%. I would say even their idea of queer people on these shows, their idea of, you know, who they should be and who they choose to represent, right through Bravo, is very wrapped up in dominant ideas about beauty. OK, and like, you know, everybody is still perfectly put together, everybody still is conventionally attractive. Everybody is still living a sort of aspirational lifestyle.

Keller: There’s a lot of pressure for women on “Real Housewives” to sort of meet that beauty standard, because their face and their image is their job. Do you feel like the “Housewives” franchise sort of reinforces that beauty standard?

Psarras: That’s one of the biggest problems I have, so, like, you know, number one, the pro is, OK, I get to watch these rich, glamorous women be beautiful on screen, I love it, I’m superficial to that degree, right? But it is entirely problematic, a good chunk of their decisions to undergo plastic surgery that’s influenced by patriarchal beauty standards, there is an example that I use, actually, in my book. It’s something that has stuck with me for years. Vicki Gunvalson is one of, like, you know, she’s a preeminent housewife. “Watch What Happens Live” had her on a handful of years ago, and they made her play a game where she matched what season it was to the face that she had. OK, it’s like a cruel, cheeky game. She played along, was an excellent sport, but that’s like the example of Bravo somehow managing to turn down their nose at women for changing their appearance over and over again, when really, it’s because they’re on TV, and because they’re being held to this dominant ideal of beauty and femininity.

Keller: Talking about your dissertation a little bit, you argue that the women of “Real Housewives” have become experts at working the system of exploitation present in reality TV casting and production. You even coin this term “emotional camping.” So, could you explain emotional camping and why you think housewives are uniquely successful at this?

Psarras: What I mean by that, again, is these women are working in an extremely sexist environment that is like pigeonholing them into stereotypes. At some point along the way, these women recognize that, “Oh, that’s not what I actually said or did on camera that moment, but now I know how it works. Now I know how they’re going to frame me,” so the women know they have to put on these like successful emotional identity performances, they’re called. So emotional camping comes from two concepts. So the first is emotional labor. I’m using the term from Arlie Hochschild, who’s an amazing sociologist, who was the first to like coin the term. What emotional labor was originally designed to describe is the work that you get paid to do, and like the front, the performance that you put on when you’re at work carrying out your job. I think it’s a really solid concept to use when we’re talking about housewives, because they are by design and contractually obligated to lose control of their emotions to like do a different form of emotional labor, but they have to do those things in order to get paid. And then there’s the camping portion. Camping comes from Susan Sontag, who wrote “Notes on Camp.” So camp is like those movies that are so bad they’re good, and so the camping part, it coincides with the emotional labor, because that’s how they perform. So these women aren’t camp anymore, because they’re very aware of the cameras. If they were performing actual camp, they would be like completely oblivious to the show they were on, and they would just be that delusional. But now these women play to the stereotypes, that’s camping, it’s just a sort of hybrid form of labor that these women do to put on the best performance as housewives.

Keller: Your upcoming book is titled “Lessons From the Housewives: What TV’s Most Iconic Women Taught Me About Strength, Resilience, and Embracing the Chaos.” So what inspired you to write this book?

Psarras: Oh my gosh, the women of “The Real Housewives” are my number one inspiration. They’ve just been, again since 2006, as just a fan before I even researched this franchise, it’s like they’ve been a part of my life. Especially through like your high highs, when you’re like hanging with friends, you’ve always got like a Bravo show to watch, so it’s like a communal experience brings people together, and then during your lows, it’s like nothing makes you feel better than watching Bravo.

Keller: Totally, yeah, I completely resonate with that. Going along with the theme of your upcoming book, what’s one lesson you learned from one of the “Housewives”?

Psarras: One is Ramona Singer’s tagline from, I think, it’s like “RHONY” Season 8, she says, “Age is an issue of mind over matter, if you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” And that was a really special chapter to write, because I am turning 40 this year, and so it’s just like such a pivotal moment, and like it’s one of those like decades that you enter when you’re like, “Am I where I thought I would be?” And so, as I was writing that chapter, I sort of reflected on a lot of parts of my life, and it was like I always came back to Ramona Singer saying that.

[Editor’s note: Singer’s tagline was for Season 10 of “RHONY.”]

Keller: Now I know you love to watch them on TV, but do you think you’d be friends with any of the women in the “Housewives” franchise?

Psarras: OK, no. Number one, no. I feel like we don’t really know who these women are, right? OK, and like also the image that they’re presenting isn’t always a friendly one, because I don’t know these women on a personal level, no, but would I love to hang out with them one time? Absolutely, I think it would be awesome.

Keller: Evie Psarras is a cultural studies researcher studying reality TV. Thank you for joining us, Evie.

Psarras: Thank you so much.

Keller: I’m Caitlin Keller. Thank you for listening to Medill Reports.

 

Caitlin Keller is a magazine specialization graduate student at Medill.